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Today, a wide variety of exogenous agents (xenobiotic) collectively termed endocrine disrupting compounds (EDC) includes almost 1000 synthetic chemicals. The group of EDC is highly heterogeneous and embodies chemicals used as industrial solvents and their by-products (persistent organic pollutants and dioxins), plastics (bisphenol A) and various pesticides, herbicides and industrial pollutions. The concept of endocrine disruption refers to exogenous chemicals present in the environment, including the food and drugs that affect human’s hormonal systems. Both epidemiological and experimental evidence suggest an association between exposure to EDC and diabetes and related cardio metabolic disorders. These compounds are not just accumulate in the white adipose tissue, but also release into the blood circulation and exhibit their pathogenic effects on various organs. The present review is focused on the factors influencing the accumulation, metabolism and release of EDC in the white adipose tissue.

Recent evidence has shifted the paradigm of white adipose tissue from simple energy storage to the body's major endocrine and paracrine organ synthesizing and releasing multiple signaling proteins, collectively termed adipokines. White adipose tissue is distributed in two large depots (subcutaneous and visceral) and many small depots associated with the heart, blood vessels, lymph nodes, ovaries, mammary glands, prostate gland, pancreas. Even in a lean person, adipose tissue represents about 15-20 % of body weight, including external (subcutaneous and visceral) and internal (organ-associated) adipose tissue, the latter being even more important than the former; however the internal fat distribution was beyond the scope of the present study. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a term used to describe the accumulation of fat in the liver of people in the absence of alcohol consumption or consumption of less than 20 g/day. It is a progressive, low-grade inflammatory disease related to obesity and metabolic syndrome. NAFLD represent a spectrum of disorders ranging from fat accumulation (steatosis) to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) that can progress to fibrosis and cirrhosis. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the clinic and metabolic parameters in patients with type 2 diabetes and NAFLD depending on gender and BMI and to assess relation of adipose tissue distribution with insulin resistance. Total of 118 patients (mean age 55.93 years; male, 46, female, 72) with type 2 diabetes evaluated in an outpatient diabetes clinic were diagnosed with NAFLD by ultrasonography and were assessed by weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, fasting plasma glucose, HbAlc, and fasting insulin level. We calculated the HOMA-IR index [FPG (mmol/l) x FI (I¼U/ml)]:22.5. Body adipose percentage and trunk adipose content were measured using bioelectrical impedance analysis (TANITA BC-418). Overall, the present results suggest that insulin resistance may be considered a pathogenic link between T2DM and NAFLD, also at the level of adipose tissue distribution. Evaluating the distribution of internal, organ-associated adipose tissue remains a challenge for future studies in patients with T2DM and NAFLD. Adipobiology 2012; 4: 97-101.

Insulin, discovered in 1921 by Nicolae Paulescu, and adiponectin, discovered in 1995 by Yuji Matsuzawa's and two other groups, are two important molecules related to the maintenance of human energy homeostasis. The close relationship of these two hormones in the development of metabolic pathology (obesity, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus) prompted us to use a bioinformatic approach in order to better understand the architecture of their gene promoters. In this study, a comprehensive analysis was undertaken for adiponectin (ADIPOQ) and insulin (INS) gene promoter sequences from 7 species. In our approach we used 14 promoter sequences (7 promoters for each gene) from HomoloGene (NCBI). In order to examine the structural particularities of ADIPOQ and INS gene promoters, we used two-dimensional image-based patterns obtained through Kappa Index of Coincidence (Kappa IC) and (C+G)% values. We observed that C+G content variations of ADIPOQ promoter correlates with body mass, whereas high Kappa IC values of the INS gene promoter appear to be correlated with brain size. Adipobiology 2012; 4: 111-115.

In 1974, the "Ariadne's thread" (from Greek Mythology, pick one's way through the Labyrinth) of autoimmunity leading to the immunogenetic theory of type 1 diabetes mellitus made it possible to conclude that in this phenotype there exists an unsolved conflict between β-cells and the body's autoreactive immune system. In type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), the "Ariadne's thread" links obesity to pancreatic β-cell biology. Unfortunately, beginning from a wrong interpretation of the relationship between plasma glucose and plasma insulin, the insulin resistance hypothesis was born and claimed as the main defect of T2DM. Overlooking obesity, the understanding of T2DM pathogenesis was delayed by almost half a century. Fortunately, the adipobiology, particularly adipocytes was able to reach the "drawing board" of researchers, and has all the chances these cells to become the "cell of the century", just as the pancreatic β-cell was last the cell of century. The association of diabetes and obesity has motivated us to put pancreatic β-cells and adipocytes head-to-head, that is, we moved from the T2DM-obesity couple to the β-cell-adipocyte couple, appreciating their main secretory products, insulin/proinsulin, C-peptide, amylin (for β-cells), and adiponectin, as well as other numerous adipokines (for adipocytes). We thus propose that the proinsulin-to-adiponectin ratio could become the earliest predictor of dysfunction of these two cell types. Adipobiology 2012; 4: 41-50.

To evaluate the results in metabolic control at newly discovered type 2 diabetic mellitus (T2DM) patients regarding the lifestyle optimization only. In this short (1 year) observational study we included a number of 1855 newly discovered T2DM patients. We compared body mass index (BMI), fasting blood glucose (FBG), HbA1c, triglycerides (TG), high density level cholesterol (HDLc) all these recorded initially at the diagnosis and then 1 year later. At baseline 52.91% males and 52.41% females were recommended only lifestyle and the rest was treated with metformin, sulfonylurea or insulin. After one year the patients who remained on lifestyle only decreased with only 5%, demonstrating that lifestyle optimization remains one of the most important "therapeutic" tools in the metabolic control of T2DM patients studied. Adipobiology 2012; 4: 103-106.